The Faun's Nephew
by yorozuyagaren
Summary: A Christmas present for Ginny. A tale about Genno, one of the castle staff who forsees the departure of the four Kings and Queens, and ends up following them on the hunt for the White Stag.


This story is hereby to be known as Ginny's Christmas present. So there.

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The Faun's Nephew 

This story is about something that happened towards the end of the Golden Age of Narnia, when the four Kings and Queens ruled. It is partly about the four Kings and Queens, and partly about Tumnus the Faun, but it is mostly about Tumnus' young nephew, a one part Faun, three parts Archenlander named Genno.

Genno lived in the castle of Cair Paravel in Narnia, along with his mother and uncle. His father—whose own father had been the Narnian ambassador to King Lune of Archenland before the reign of the White Witch—had been killed trying to bring supplies over the border from Archenland during the war. Genno didn't remember him, having been very small indeed during the war against the Witch.

It was not long after the war that Queen Susan had grown homesick surrounded by Narnians, and had asked King Lune if he would send some of the more human-looking Archenlanders as settlers. Genno and his mother were in that group of settlers. Genno's mother had right away adopted Queens Susan and Lucy as her daughters, helping them through the rocky areas of growing up, while Genno had a marvelous time making friends with the talking animals, and his uncle who he had never met.

In fact, at the very moment that our story opens, we find Genno and Tumnus out in the castle courtyard in the middle of a music lesson.

"No, no, no!" Tumnus cried as he corrected the placement of Genno's fingers on the slender reed flute for the eleventh time that morning.

Genno gave a sigh of exasperation. "But it works better this way!" he insisted. He rearranged his fingers on the holes and blew gently. A timid whistle rose through the air, twisting and doubling over on itself as Genno sounded out a song he'd heard the day before. Tumnus frowned, trying to think if he'd ever heard the strange melody before.

"Where did you find that song?" he asked.

"Queen Lucy was singing it," Genno replied, taking the flute from his lips.

"Were you spying on her again?"

Genno's face fell as he nodded. "But she's so beautiful, even more than her sister, although everyone else says that Queen Susan is the prettier of them. But she just thinks of me as a little brother."

Tumnus patted the curly head. "It's the truth of this world, Genno," he said. "Very rarely are there happy endings for everyone." The Faun's nose wrinkled. "Hmm… I do believe I smell jam tarts. We should go inside before they run out."

Genno perked up immediately at the word "jam tarts", and was perfectly content to follow his uncle back inside and around to the kitchens.

That night, Genno had a dream.

It started off as a fairly good dream. There was a feast laid out on the lawn near the Stone Table, and everyone in the kingdom—not to mention quite a few people from out of it—were invited to attend. There was everything good to eat and plenty to drink as well. Everyone was enjoying themselves immensely, when a strange white shadow fell over the four Kings and Queens as they ate and chatted. It blew about for a bit, then left, and the four Kings and Queens gradually became transparent and then disappeared altogether. The last to disappear was Queen Lucy, and she looked at Genno imploringly as she shimmered and was gone.

Genno woke with a start. He was in his bed near the kitchens, and the sky outside his little window was dark and scattered with stars. There was a curious feeling in his throat, and his eyes seemed to itch, and he knew that the dream had been a warning. He threw his clothes on in a hurry and ran to his uncle Tumnus' room.

"Uncle Tumnus, Uncle Tumnus!" he cried, shaking the Faun awake. "I had another warning-dream!"

"Hmm?" Tumnus murmured sleepily.

"Warning-dream! It said that the Kings and Queens are going to disappear!"

This brought Tumnus awake in seconds.

"Disappear?" he asked incredulously, grabbing parchment, ink, and a quill from his nighttable. He dipped the quill in the ink and held it poised above the scrap of parchment. "Describe exactly what you saw in the dream," The Faun said seriously. Genno told him about it in as much detail as he could remember. Tumnus carefully wrote it all down in his small, neat handwriting.

"That's all I remember," Genno said at last. Tumnus nodded, and put the quill and the ink back on the nighttable.

"Now when morning comes, we must take this to Orieus the Centaur," the Faun said. "He'll know how to puzzle this out."

But when morning came, Orieus wasn't in his cave. His son told Genno and Tumnus that the Centaur had had a vision that told him that danger would come from the North, and had immediately gone to investigate.


End file.
